Air Stone in Sump

[richserpe]

Hello all

I was just curious to know if anyone runs an airstone in their sump next to the return pump to increase O2 in the tank. Sounds good on paper but I was wondering if anyone has real world experience. Thanks

 

[pookie]

you have a skimmer?

 

[eraser2001]

I don't run an air stone, what I do is to run a skimmer pump connected to a soda lime container, than just runs at night. I just started this week to see the effect on my PH, so far so good, and Yes I have a skimmer connected to another container with soda lime.

 

[Mr. Mojo Rising]

Wouldn't that send a tonne of micro bubbles to the display tank?
I do have a powerhead in my sump for good surface agitation in the sump as well in the display tank, IMO that should provide enough oxygenation if you don't have a skimmer. But if you have a skimmer its better than an airstone IMO

 

[Subsea]

I run an air stone in display with air pump attacked to UPS.

If bubbles in display are not desirable then use automatic back up air pump that comes on when power fails. Cost $19.

Penn Plax Battery Back-Up Pump | Petco

The Penn Plax battery powered aquarium air pump is a must have. This air pump provides a constant supply of oxygen to your fish tank in case of an emergency power outage or for transporting fish.

www.petco.com

 

[richserpe]

I have an octopus skimmer in the sump. Just wanted a little extra oomph!

 

[Mike7744]

Yes I run a airstone in my sump, have done it for a long time

 

[eraser2001]

I have an octopus skimmer in the sump. Just wanted a little extra oomph!

If you have an extra skimmer pump, you can run at night, you will see the difference. My pump runs from 2 am to 6 am, my plan is to increase time slowly and monitoring my alk consumption and PH

 

[AUSXMD]

I have an octopus skimmer in the sump. Just wanted a little extra oomph!

My Koran Angel recently had flukes. I put an airstone in the display while running my Octopus skimmer without the collection cup as a part of the treatment instructions. The flukes seem to be gone and the tank is healthy. Incidentally, I noticed my water being very clear. I thought it was very clear before, but this airstone seems to have taken the clarity to another level. I decided to run the airstone this past week just to see what might happen. Besides a darker, better skimmate being pulled out, the water is crystal clear. Esthetically, I'm on the fence about it. I might move it into the sump chamber that's before the bubble trap and return chamber and see if I get the same results with the crystal water. Others may chime in and let me know this is good, bad or a waste of time and all in my head(a possibility lol). I am by no means an expert aquarist, but I've had tanks on and off for 30 years. What I have now is a Waterbox Infinia 230.6 that's FOWLR with various anemones. I like the idea of running the airstone on a timer overnight. That's what I do with my refugium light. Hope there's something helpful in my rambling here! Let me know how it goes for you. Take care.

 

[zheka757]

If you struggle with low ph,one of the biggest reasons is to much co2 on your house/ aquarium room. Putting air stone; that pump is sucking same house air with co2 and injecting it into your tank. Won't give you results you want/need.
Best solution to inject air into the tank is putting outside the house air into the skimmer, and even better put a co2 scrubber between outside air tube and skimmer.
. ..But even best, dont let any one breathe in the house, lol

But joke aside, if anyone thinking of drilling house just to put a tube outside, try a co2 scrubber and attach it to the skimmer first, if results are huge then I would think about drilling hole in house for the tube.
I put mine in the ceiling and ran a 3/4 tube in the attic to the outside house air. But even with that I still see a huge difference in my ph when my family going away on vacation. The picture below is screen shot of my ph, when I was away for vacation you can see where the low number was in 8.2 when I was home, and 8.3 when I was away

 

[Max1]

Hello all

I was just curious to know if anyone runs an airstone in their sump next to the return pump to increase O2 in the tank. Sounds good on paper but I was wondering if anyone has real world experience. Thanks

Hi,
I have a red sea 625 L display, and when I set it up I didn't run my skimmer for a while as I didn't want to bottom out my nutrients. I got an o2 test kit and tested my disolved oxygen which showed it was roughly 5 ppm, which I wanted to increase. I got a fairly big airstone and air pump and set it up in my sump, before the bubble trap for my return pump, I had no issues with increased microbubles like some people say you will have. I ran this air stone all the time and tested o2 regurlarly and noticed no difference in mesured level. I then ended up turning my skimmer on and tested o2 again with it running and it put my o2 levels up to 6/7 ppm. I thought that it was a good idea the airstone but in practice it didn't really do anything based on my testing. I think that because my take is a 625L system, the airstone was just too small to have a noticable effect. When comparing the amount of bubbles from the skimmer to the airstone I had there was a lot more from the skimmer. Also when my o2 was 5ppm, there was no signs of low oxygen in fish, like rapid breathing or swimming at top of tank, so it seems that running without skimmer still has enough oxygen for fish.

Only thing that may alter my results is that my tank was not done cycling, meaning that bacteria was rapidly colonising and I would imagine using up a lot more oxygen to break down elevated levels of ammonia and nitrite during cycle, so possibly my o2 levels could have dropped lower but because I had the airstone they stayed stable at aroun 5ppm instead. Just a thought

 

[Freenow54]

Hello all

I was just curious to know if anyone runs an airstone in their sump next to the return pump to increase O2 in the tank. Sounds good on paper but I was wondering if anyone has real world experience. Thanks

Yes I put a Stainless weight on it to keep it on the bottom (I am old School )

 

[Freenow54]

Hi,
I have a red sea 625 L display, and when I set it up I didn't run my skimmer for a while as I didn't want to bottom out my nutrients. I got an o2 test kit and tested my disolved oxygen which showed it was roughly 5 ppm, which I wanted to increase. I got a fairly big airstone and air pump and set it up in my sump, before the bubble trap for my return pump, I had no issues with increased microbubles like some people say you will have. I ran this air stone all the time and tested o2 regurlarly and noticed no difference in mesured level. I then ended up turning my skimmer on and tested o2 again with it running and it put my o2 levels up to 6/7 ppm. I thought that it was a good idea the airstone but in practice it didn't really do anything based on my testing. I think that because my take is a 625L system, the airstone was just too small to have a noticable effect. When comparing the amount of bubbles from the skimmer to the airstone I had there was a lot more from the skimmer. Also when my o2 was 5ppm, there was no signs of low oxygen in fish, like rapid breathing or swimming at top of tank, so it seems that running without skimmer still has enough oxygen for fish.

Only thing that may alter my results is that my tank was not done cycling, meaning that bacteria was rapidly colonising and I would imagine using up a lot more oxygen to break down elevated levels of ammonia and nitrite during cycle, so possibly my o2 levels could have dropped lower but because I had the airstone they stayed stable at aroun 5ppm instead. Just a thought

My " air stone " is actually quite large around three inches long , and 3/4 square . I never concerned myself with testing but I like the approach of covering all the bases

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

A drawback to air stones is salt spray from the popping bubbles.

 

[Malcontent]

A drawback to air stones is salt spray from the popping bubbles.

Just obscure the surface. One of these days I'm going to 3D design and print a mist eliminator.

 

[Malcontent]

Be sure to place the air stone in a section of the sump that has deep water. They don't work well in shallow water.